The Essay on Schiller [Versuch uber Schiller] was published in book form (and on a record with the author's voice) alongside the events commemorating the one hundred and fifty years since Schiller's death.

On this anniversary, it was initially delivered in a shortened form on May 8, 1955, at the State Theatre of Württemberg in Stuttgart and, a few days later, on May 14, at the National Theatre of Weimar.

This is the last published text of Thomas Mann during his lifetime, who died a few months later at the age of eighty (on August 12, 1955) in Zurich.